Dolphins Rewind: Miami can’t get out of its own way in 16-0 loss to Bears

Tony Sparano, bleary-eyed and frustrated Friday morning over the performance of his team 12 hours prior, was asked about his Dolphins having a negative play of at least 9 yards on each of his team’s first four drives in their 16-0 loss to the Bears. He didn’t mind the negative question.

Tyler Thigpen and the Dolphins just couldn't get anything going against the Bears / Post staff

Forget the quarterback situation, the injuries to the offensive line and questionable production of Brandon Marshall. The Dolphins simply couldn’t get out of their own way on Thursday night, allowing six sacks and committing four penalties on offense for 40 yards. That’s 10 negative plays in only 48 snaps.

“Like Coach (Sparano) said, we couldn’t get out of own way,” quarterback Tyler Thigpen said. “There’s no excuses for what we displayed out there today.”

It’s hard enough to put up points against the Bears and their fourth-ranked defense. It’s a lot harder when Thigpen and Brian Hartline fumble a handoff exchange for a 9-yard loss to take the Dolphins out of field goal range on the opening drive; when John Jerry commits a holding penalty to create first-and-20 on the second drive; when Marshall is busted for a 10-yard block-in-the-back penalty; and when Marshall is flagged 15 yards for taunting.

It also explains why the Dolphins were only able to run the ball six times with Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown. They simply faced too many second- and third-and-longs.

“That really put us behind the chains and took us a little bit out of a game plan,” Sparano said. “The bottom line is in the first 1 plays we ran the ball five times and we had minus-8 yards. So, that’s not very good, and we got to do a better job of that.”

Add in the fact that Thigpen – 17 of 29 for 187 yards and an interception – was making his first start since December 2008, and the Dolphins were cooked.

A site we never thought we'd see again -- Don Shula (left) and former star safety Jake Scott embracing / Post Staff

GAME BALLS

WR Brian Hartline
Hartline, who has had some untimely drops this year and temporarily earned a benching against Cincinnati, is quietly putting together a strong season. He led all receivers with five catches for 70 yards Thursday night, and he has gone for 70-plus yards in each of his last three games. Hartline (39 catches for 540 yards) has already surpassed his numbers from last year (31 catches for 506 yards), and his 13.7 yards per catch this year is highest among Dolphins receivers.

LB Karlos Dansby
Filled up the stat sheet with a team-high 10 tackles, two for loss, a quarterback hit and his second sack of the season.

LB Cam Wake
Another huge game for Wake — six tackles, three for loss, one sack, one other quarterback hit, a forced fumble and drew three holding penalties against Bears RT J’Marcus Webb.

P Brandon FieldsDevin Hester did get one 24-yard return, but otherwise Fields did a great job punting to Hester, holding him to 27 total return yards in seven punts, with three fair catches. Three of Fields’ punts were downed inside the 20, and he had a long of 54.

This look pretty much says it all for Brandon Marshall and the Dolphins / Post Staff

INJURY UPDATE
Marshall left the game late in the second quarter after re-aggravating a left hamstring injury, which didn’t appear on the team’s Injury Report until Wednesday. … Quarterback Chad Henne jogged onto the field and participated in warm-ups Thursday as the third quarterback, despite reports stating that he could be lost for the season with a left knee injury. … Jake Long played despite a significant injury to his left shoulder, and came out of the game in the fourth quarter once the game was decided. … Backup center Cory Procter, filling in for starter Joe Berger (left knee injury), suffered a serious left knee injury in the first half, likely a torn ACL. … Safety Chris Clemons (knee) and receiver Roberto Wallace (knee) also did not play.

LINEUP MOVES
Thigpen played quarterback after Pennington and Henne went down against the Titans. … Left guard Richie Incognito moved to center when Procter went down, and Pat McQuistan came into the game at left guard. … Long was replaced at left tackle by Lydon Murtha late in the fourth quarter. … Rookie Reshad Jones earned his first career start as Clemons’ replacement at safety. … Marlon Moore replaced Wallace in the lineup for the second week in a row. … Tyrone Culver returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with an ankle injury.

QUICK SLANTS

— The loss was the first time the Dolphins’ were shutout since a 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh in November, 2007, and their first shutout at home in exactly nine years, a 24-0 loss to the Jets on Nov. 18, 2001.

— With the Dolphins at 5-5, sitting 2.5 games out of first place in the AFC East, the team is evaluating whether it should shut down Long for the rest of the season and let him get surgery on his left shoulder. “I think you got to evaluate today how he feels after playing those plays, see where his strength is, all those things as we go forward here,” Sparano said Friday. “I’ve been in constant communication with Jake and with our trainers and the doctors here to make sure that we’re doing the right things and not the wrong things.”

— Thigpen wasn’t so hot in his first game as a starter. He finished with 187 passing yards, an interception, a 58.6 completion percentage and a 63.4 passer rating. He made some nice passes to Marshall and Hartline and was able to make a few plays on his feet, but he had three passes batted down at the line of scrimmage, six sacks and converted just 1-of-11 third downs.

No, this look from Ronnie Brown says it all / Post Staff

“The good news is I don’t think Tyler on the sideline was flustered at all,” Sparano said. “There was none of that from a communication standpoint or any of those things. He could tell you what he was seeing out there pretty clearly, and after watching the film I think he was correct.”

— That’s two games in a row that Marshall has let his emotions get the best of him. First he got called for delay of game against the Titans for firing the ball to the sideline after catching a pass. And Thursday he earned a 15-yard taunting penalty for flipping the ball at former teammate Jay Cutler after a play.

“The thing on the sideline, Brandon knew it,” Sparano said. “Brandon came right up to me and told me, so he’s well aware that that wasn’t a smart penalty.”

Marshall didn’t speak to the media after the game, but apologized on Friday on his weekly radio spot on WQAM.

“That was a boneheaded move by me,” he said. “It cost our team some yardage and I wish I can have that play back.”

— Marshall also didn’t say much about his left hamstring injury, but did say, “I’m going to do everything in my power to be ready to go” for the Dolphins’ next game, at Oakland on Nov. 28.

— Davone Bess had his quietest day since Week 3 of his rookie year – one catch for 9 yards. The sure-handed Bess was targeted five times, however.

Davone Bess and the Dolphins were surrounded by Bears all night / Post Staff

— The running game was non-existent. Brown rushed three times for 10 yards, Williams rushed three times for 1 yard and Patrick Cobbs rushed one time for 1 yard. Thigpen was the leading rusher, with six scrambles for 27 yards. Williams and Brown have combined for 40 rushes and 146 rushing yards (3.65 yards per carry) over the past three games, while Williams has rushed for just 1 yard in two of those games.

— Sparano said the intent wasn’t to call seven run plays against 41 passes. Instead, the coaches called several “run/pass kills” where Thigpen decides at the line of the scrimmage whether to run or pass based on the coverage. Sparano said the Dolphins called four of these plays in a row on the fifth series of the game, for example, and the Bears “baited” Thigpen into throwing the ball, Sparano said.

— The Dolphins were missing their top two quarterbacks, top two centers, star receiver, starting free safety and had to play their second game in five nights, but no one wanted to use those for excuses. “I’m not going to use them,” Sparano said. “It’s the National Football League, so the next guy has got to step up, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

— Cam Wake returned to the lineup after missing the second half Sunday with a hip injury and picked up sack No. 9.5 of the season, second-most in the league entering Sunday’s games. And backup Quentin Moses picked up his first sack of the season late in the fourth quarter.

— Thigpen said he took “five or six reps” with Incognito at center this week in practice. Incognito, new to the Dolphins this year, said he last played center with the Rams four years ago. He flubbed a couple of shotgun snaps, but overall held his own.

— The Dolphins had three primetime games this year – a Sunday night game against the Jets, a Monday night game against the Patriots and a Thursday night game against the Bears, all at home. The Dolphins lost all three games and were outscored 88-37.

— Jay Cutler certainly didn’t have a huge game – 16-of-25 for 156 yards, an interception, a 64.8 passer rating and a long of 16 yards – but his biggest stat was the 10-of-18 third-down conversions, including four conversions from 7 yards or further. Cutler also had four scrambles for 28 yards, with a 16-yard scramble on third-and-16.

— The Dolphins allowed exactly 135 rushing yards for the second game in a row. The Fins have allowed 100-plus rushing yards in four straight games and seven of 10 this year.

— The Dolphins have six games remaining and currently sit in 10th place in the AFC playoff race (before Sunday’s games), but the season isn’t over yet. In each of the past six seasons, a team has started 5-5 or worse yet still won a Wild Card berth. Last season, the Jets started 4-6 before winning a Wild Card and reaching the AFC Championship Game.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“Offensively, we feel embarrassed out there with what we put on the field. I put the blame on me. I’ll take the blame. I feel like we’d get things going, and then maybe I’d make a mistake or something.”
— Tyler Thigpen, taking the blame for the offense’s performance.

“We’re one of those teams right now that has no room for error right now. I think that if you can’t be excited about that, in other words if you can’t get yourself ready to go, knowing that your back is against the wall then, then you have some issues. I think this team will respond pretty well to that. I know they’ll come out and they’ll compete well.”
— Tony Sparano, talking about his team’s playoff chances.

” “Brandon’s one of my good friends. I just got him fired up before the game. I told him we were going to put someone over the top on him and limit him as much as possible. That frustrates him probably more than anything. He’s such a competitor, he wants the ball on every play. Whenever teams go out of their way to shut him down, just as a sign of respect, it really gets to him. So I tried to fire him up as much as possible.”
— Bears quarterback Jay Cutler speaking on ESPN 1000 in Chicago, talking about how he instigated Marshall’s 15-yard taunting penalty.

“I could’ve put this game plan together with a box of crayolas and a pizza box. That’s how bad the coaching staff was for the Miami dolphins in this game.”
— ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth, incredulous that Miami only ran the ball seven times.